Snapshots in Time: 2023 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pope Benedict XVI

At the time of the former pope's passing, he had reached the age of 95. His last words, as reported by his long-time secretary, were "Signore ti amo" (which means "Lord, I love you"). From January 2 to January 4, 2023, Benedict's body was placed on public display in St. Peter's Basilica. During this time, approximately 195,000 people came to pay their respects and say their final goodbyes.

The official funeral for Benedict took place on January 5 in St. Peter's Square. The funeral was presided over by Pope Francis, a significant moment historically, as it was the first time since 1802 that a pope attended the funeral of his predecessor.

Answer: Canada

Starting in March 2023, record-breaking wildfires in Canada, fueled by higher temperatures and drier conditions brought upon by climate change, had burned more land in that country than any other year, and that was even before the year had finished.

A research scientist from the organization Natural Resources Canada stated, "The word 'unprecedented' doesn't do justice to the severity of the wildfires in Canada this year. From a scientific perspective, the doubling of the previous burned area record is shocking."

Far-reaching geographic winds brought ash and soot from the wildfires to many Canadian--as well as American--cities, blanketing the skies and filling the air with fine particles that made it unsafe to leave homes. Foreign aid helped mitigate some of the fires' impact, but the flames continued to rage even into the last quarter of the year.

Answer: OpenAI

ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses large language models as its foundation. The version GPT-4 was released as a paid feature and an improvement over the previous model, GPT-3.5, which was still offered as a free version to Internet users.

The upgraded version still worked based on the generative token system, where the chatbot chooses what it believes will be the next most logical word in the sentence. The newest model of that year was able to take a photograph and analyze its contents, giving users a readout of what the photo contained as well as hazarding a guess over its significance.

Answer: submersible

The submersible known as the Titan was launched into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean in June 2023, with the aim of observing the ruins of the Titanic. Aboard the submersible, the passengers included the CEO of OceanGate (the company that had built the submersible and launched the mission), a Titanic expert, two businessmen, and the son of one of the businessmen.

When the vessel stopped relaying information back to the main ship, there were worries that something might have happened to the expedition. After numerous days of searching by the maritime forces of numerous countries, those worries came to fruition when wreckage of the Titan was found floating in the ocean. The vessel was believed to have suffered a failure of the fiber-carbon hull, which in turn caused an implosion at an instantaneous speed.

Answer: Finland

In a lengthy process that started in May 2022, the Nordic countries of Finland and Sweden applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a result of Russian aggression in Ukraine. Finland's application was voted upon and formally accepted nearly a year later, in April 2023. The inclusion of Finland into the international alliance doubled the length of NATO member states' borders with Russia due to Finland's eastern border.

Sweden's NATO membership has been held up by NATO members Turkey and Hungary, who have demanded concessions from the Nordic nation before they vote to affirm. NATO rules insist that all existing members must approve the membership of another country before they can join the alliance.

Answer: China

While Chinese officials insisted that the high-altitude balloon was simply a meteorological instrument, U.S. officials characterized it as a surveillance balloon complete with spy equipment. The event raised tensions between the two nations, though many geopolitical experts believe the balloon hadn't intentionally entered U.S. airspace.

Floating from Alaska to the coast of South Carolina, the balloon was allowed to remain in the sky for fear that shooting it down over land could cause accidental death. Once the balloon reached the ocean, it was shot down and retrieved for examination. A diverse group of U.S. citizens reached for their binoculars and cameras as the balloon floated over their neck of the woods, capturing images of the ill-fated balloon's voyage across the continental United States.

Answer: Silicon Valley Bank

While both banks had been criticized for their banking practices and risky behavior, the biggest factor in their ultimate collapse was that their customers had lost faith in the banks' ability to safely hold their money. Silicon Valley Bank, especially, served as the financial institution used most often by startups in the Silicon Valley region in California, and had a customer base that was particularly affluent. When those customers started to believe they couldn't trust the bank to have enough money on hand to pay them out in the future, they started to withdraw their funds from their accounts en masse.

Social media, news coverage, and private group chats all led the word to spread virally, causing panic amongst the bank's other numerous depositors. Soon, with no money left and spiraling further and further into debt, the bank collapsed. This event was believed to have contributed to First Republic Bank's subsequent demise.

Answer: III

The previous coronation of a U.K. monarch was that of Queen Elizabeth II in June 2, 1953, so Charles' ascension to the throne was one that hadn't been seen in most Britons' lifetimes. Though Charles immediately became king upon the death of his mother, the coronation provides a formal ceremony that demonstrates the passing of regal power.

For such a momentous and rare event, dignitaries from around the world were invited to witness the coronation and meet with Charles publicly. Smaller celebrations and parties were held throughout the country as well as anti-monarchial protests from citizens who expressed their disdain over the royal family and its hold over certain processes within the British system.

Answer: Yevgeny Prigozhin

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had up until his rebellion had a vast amount of independent authority over his troops fighting in Ukraine, had been ordered to bring the Wagner Group under the direct control of the Russian Ministry of Defense. This did not sit well with Prigozhin, who was now stuck in a power struggle with those closer to Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Over a single day, Prigozhin and his soldiers didn't march west into Ukraine like they had been used to, but instead went east, capturing the massive city of Rostov-on-Don and covering large swathes of land. There was little-to-no resistance on the ground, and the few confrontations they had were skirmishes with various aircraft, some of which were shot down. Eventually, Prigozhin stopped short of Moscow, agreeing to a ceasefire proposed by the Belorussian president.

The agreement, however, didn't seem to protect him from an oft-predicted incident--a plane carrying him crashed in August 2023. There were reports of explosions onboard the aircraft before its eventual landing, causing many to cry foul.

Answer: House of Representatives

When U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy won the post in January, it took several votes to convince the more conservative members of his caucus to come to an agreement to vote for him. Because of a razor-thin margin, McCarthy could lose only a few Republican votes, so he had to make several promises to secure his leadership.

One of the promises was that any one member, at any time, could bring up a vote to remove the speaker; this of course happened to be the way that McCarthy came to be removed from the speakership, with eight Republicans voting to oust him along with all Democrats (216-210 with seven absent). It was the first time a Speaker of the House was removed from the position, and it is even more striking that the vote came about from a member of the speaker's own party.